


It's Code

by chamel



Category: Westworld (TV)
Genre: Almost Certainly Canon Divergent, F/M, Fix-It, Post-Season 2, Reunion, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 21:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15827604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chamel/pseuds/chamel
Summary: It felt weird, being back in Westworld. It felt like coming home, but to a place she had never been before.Elsie returns to Westworld on a mission and finds more than she expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sequel to Drinking with You.
> 
> The title comes from a Janelle Monáe song, from the album The Electric Lady.

It felt weird, being back in Westworld. It felt like coming home, but to a place she had never been before. She knew where to find the access point, and how to navigate the maze-like underground hallways without even thinking about it. She had not expected it to be so familiar, for the scents of antiseptic spray, wet concrete, and host blood to recall a sense of belonging. Everywhere she turned she was reminded of a past life she hadn’t really lived, and the memories were so vivid. She knew they were much more accurate than human memories, even though she didn’t quite know what human memories were like. To make matters worse they weren’t even really her memories, but his interpretation of her memories. It was confusing, and she tried not to dwell on it.

At the entrance to the hallways she had found some QA gear hanging on a peg. She now wore a black jacket emblazoned with the Delos logo and a baseball cap pulled low over her face; her dark, utilitarian ponytail stuck out the back. She didn’t have a gun, but she wasn’t expecting to need it. He had said that the park was close to being back online, that there shouldn’t be much trouble. All she had to do was get in, copy the code they needed, and get out. He had explained that no one would expect to see her, so she was more likely to go unnoticed, but she thought it was probably also a test. How well would her programming serve her? This was one hell of a test, though. Why couldn’t he have tested her by sending her out for fucking takeout? But she was here now, and it was like she had never left. She moved quietly and assuredly toward the Mesa.

So far, so good. The place seemed deserted, at least at this end. Once she heard someone whistling as she approached an intersection, and she ducked back around a corner as they passed, footsteps echoing softly through the concrete halls. She arrived at the stairwell she wanted and began ascending. It was quite a few floors up, but she couldn’t risk the elevator. When she reached Behavior’s floor, she paused on the landing, catching her breath. She knew he had been going for accuracy, but why couldn’t he have made her in a little better shape? Slowly, she opened the door and peeked through it. She didn’t see or hear anyone coming. Slipping through it, she closed it quietly behind her, then turned and ran right into Ashley Stubbs.

“Oof, sorry,” he said, stepping out of her way. Hearing his familiar voice, she unconsciously looked up at him then quickly realized her mistake. He recognized her instantly, eyes widening,  his mouth moving soundlessly as though he couldn’t form any words. She put a finger up to her mouth and pulled him sideways, into one of the few diagnostics rooms without windows.

When the door had closed, she turned to him again. Finally, he found the words. “El—Elsie?” he gasped. “It can’t be you. It’s—it’s not possible. You—you’re dead. I found your body. _I buried you_.” 

At first she had nothing to say. What could she say? That Bernard had needed help? That he had printed her and programmed her using his own memories of her? Then, abruptly, she realized that she didn’t need to say anything. Stubbs had narrowed his eyes and was looking at her with curiosity and disbelief. He was contacting her over the host whisper network, and it was her turn to be surprised. Stubbs was human. Bernard had known he was human. Had he been killed and replaced, too? But somehow, she knew that it wasn’t true. 

He broke the silence. “How…?”

“Bernard,” she said simply, but that only seemed to increase his confusion. She elaborated. “Dolores re-created Bernard in the outside world, using his pearl that she smuggled out and a printer in Arnold’s house. Bernard needed help to keep tabs on her, so he made me. Using his memories.”

He stared at her, his mouth hanging open in shock. Then without warning he grabbed her and hugged her tight. She tensed up instinctively; nothing in her code had told her to expect this. There were some aspects of Elsie’s personality and relationships that Bernard only guessed at, but she was pretty sure she had never been a hugger, and she didn’t think her and Stubbs had been on hugging terms. Certainly not a hug like this, like he was holding on for dear life, like he never wanted to let her go again.

Stubbs sensed her tension and released her, suddenly abashed by his behavior. “Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t have—you’re you, not her, sorry, I was just…” He paused and took a breath. “I’m glad to see you.”

Somehow she sensed that was putting it mildly. She hadn’t ever interacted with someone from human-Elsie’s past before. It made her curious. Every sentence he said was a new piece of data. She hadn’t considered that there were things she might never have told Bernard, but of course there would have been. You don’t tell anyone everything, not even your best friend. She was missing a piece of the puzzle here, something that he knew but she didn’t.

Stubbs was looking at her, as if expecting her to say something. She furrowed her brow. “Were we… intimate?” Sometimes you just had to ask the direct question.

The color drained from his face, and he sputtered, “No, no, of course not, we were just co-workers, just… friends.”

He was lying, that much was obvious. His reaction all but confirmed that something had gone on between them, something that she had hid well from Bernard, or maybe that had happened since the last time Bernard had seen her. It made her even more curious, of course, but she didn’t have time to push him right now, and he changed the subject before she could pursue it further.

“What… what are you doing back here?” he asked, trying to regain some composure.

“We’ve been tracking Dolores using a unique code signature, but she apparently caught on and disabled it. Bernard says there is a piece of code somewhere in the park’s systems that should be able to help us find her again.”

“What has Dolores been doing, besides making a new Bernard?”

Elsie shrugged. “Nothing much yet, but she’s fucking planning something, I guarantee it. We’ve just been watching her and waiting for her to make a move. Bernard says I need to access one of the main computers to get the code we need.”

Stubbs nodded. “There aren’t a lot of people around yet, just a skeleton crew of techs and QA. Delos is writing new code for the clean-wiped hosts, and trying to ‘debug’ the others, as they put it. We should be able to get you what you need.”

“Just point me toward the computer, I’ll take care of it. I don’t want to get you involved. Well, more involved than you already are.”

“You may think you know this place well, but it’s a brave new world in here. You’ll need my help if you’re going to get around unseen. What computer access were you going to use, anyway? Bernard’s? _Elsie’s_? That wouldn’t be suspicious,” he laughed. 

“Fair enough,” Elsie shrugged.

Stubbs gestured toward the door. “C’mon, there’s one just down the hall.” He glanced out and down the hall, then signaled the all clear held the door. As they left the room she could have sworn she heard him mutter, “Besides, I’d do anything for you.”

Quietly, they left the diagnostics room and moved cautiously down the hall. The glass-walled diagnostics rooms sat empty. Glass had been replaced, floors had been scrubbed, but she thought she could detect faint bloodstains here and there. She wondered if one of them was hers. The room they were looking for was also empty; Stubbs wasn’t kidding when he said the place was under-staffed. The large glass screen sat in front of an inset keyboard; Elsie recognized it as the computer she and Bernard had tried to use to get systems up and running in the Mesa, before they found out they had to go to the Cradle. Stubbs leaned over the keyboard and logged in, then moved out of the way and she slid into the seat. As she navigated through the files he took a position nearby, watching the hall. The keys clattered quietly under her deft touch. 

“Damn it,” she cursed, drawing a concerned look from Stubbs. “I can’t access the code from here.” He came around the table to look at the screen, and she pointed at the lines. “It’s archived. It can only be accessed directly at the Forge.”

“That’s going to be tough,” Stubbs said warily. “No one has been out there since the incident except a cleanup crew.”

Elsie didn’t really know what he was talking about, but she didn’t ask for an explanation. “We don’t have a fucking choice, we need that code.”

“Ok,” he said, “it’s going to take a bit to arrange a reason that I need to take a vehicle out there, but I can do it. We need to get you somewhere that you won’t be accidentally found, though.”  
  
Elsie nodded and they left the computer behind. She hadn’t asked where they were going, but soon enough she recognized the path. They were headed toward the residential wing, and before long they stopped in front of an unfamiliar door. Stubbs looked at her apologetically. “Sorry, they reassigned your apartment to a new tech. You’ll have to hang out at my place.” He unlocked the door ushered her in.

The apartment was not much like what Elsie’s had been. It was the same size and shape, but somehow he had made it cozier; the furniture wasn’t standard issue, and he apparently had a fondness for mahogany. Full bookcases lined the walls, and what looked to be a reading nook with a large comfy chair and lamp had been set up in one corner of the living area. The kitchen shelves were full of pantry staples, in stark contrast to her own bare cabinets. Pots and pans hung above the stove, well worn with rich patinas. She looked at him, surprised. She hadn’t known he was a cook. He flushed slightly under her scrutiny.

“Make yourself at home. There’s some bourbon in the cabinet by the sink,” he offered, “if you need a drink. I’ll be back in a bit.” He left her alone with her thoughts.

Elsie wandered over to the cabinet he had indicated and opened it. She grabbed the familiar bottle of bourbon, red wax dripping down the neck: her favorite. Bernard had known this was her favorite; they had spent some nights drinking and discussing coding conundrums. She replaced the bottle—she had too much to do to be drinking now—and noticed two familiar-looking glasses sitting nearby. One was obviously frequently used, but the a layer of fine dust covered the other. She hefted the clean one, and recognized it’s weight in her hand. These were her glasses. How had Stubbs gotten them?

Replacing it, she closed the cabinet, and wandered around, lost in thought. She found herself in front of his desk. The warm red-brown wood was almost anachronistic among the modern steel and glass of the Mesa, and she wondered if he had picked it up from the props inventory of some wealthy rancher’s house. Laying open on the desk was a small, leather-bound notebook, the date written at the top of the page. She realized it was a journal, or more accurately a catalog of what happened that day; that morning he had been called into the park to check on a host’s new loop. Stubbs’ writing was brief and efficient, without commentary. She knew she should turn around and walk away from the book. It was far from a diary, but it was still a personal journal, and she doubted he intended anyone to see it. Nevertheless, she couldn’t turn away. She found herself flipping back through the pages until she found it: the day of her death. Bernard had understandably not given her any memories of her own death, and maybe it wasn’t the best idea to go looking for them. She didn’t know how or where or when she had died; there was a gap in her memories between when Bernard left her on his way to the Forge and when she woke up in Arnold’s house. She had almost decided to turn away when something on the page caught her eye.

Three words stared back at her from the top of the page. _Morning with Elsie._ What the fuck did that mean? Why did he have to be a man of so few words? The rest of the entry contained frustratingly little about her; he had lost track of her at some point in the day and never found her again. So it looked like she was safe from finding out how she died after all, even he didn’t know. She flipped forward a few pages, scanning for her name, until she found it again. The day he found her body. The day had started normally enough, until he was sent to cold storage to look for a particular host’s body, and instead found hers. His terse phrasing was even more spare, and his normally neat writing was sloppy and shaky. Her death had affected him far more than she would have guessed from Bernard’s coding, but it made some sense based on their interactions today. She went back to the day of her death, and then back one more entry. At first she almost missed the mention of her at the bottom of the page. _Elsie invited me in for a drink_ , it read. _Spent the night._ She read the lines again. There it was, the missing piece. The reason her knowledge of their relationship hadn’t squared with their present interactions. She still didn’t know exactly what had happened, but she had a pretty good idea. The bourbon and glasses suddenly made sense. Bernard hadn’t known Stubbs to be a drinker, but it was clear drank now. Her favorite whiskey, her glasses. He drank to remember her, to remember that night.

Carefully, she returned the journal to the day it had been open to. She was reconsidering that drink after all when the door quietly opened and Stubbs reappeared.

“Ok, I got a vehicle, and we’re good to go,” he said.

Elsie nodded, trying to square what she had just read with the man standing in front of her now. She followed him out and down the hallway, thankful for the need for stealth that prevented them from exchanging words just now. Out on the loading dock, he climbed into one of the ATVs and started it up.  
  
“What did you say you were going to do?” she asked, curious.

Stubbs smirked at her. “Check out a host that wandered into Sector 16,” he said, “it’s off limits. Of course first I had to code the host to go in there.”  
  
Elsie raised an eyebrow. “ _You_ coded?”  
  
“Ha ha, yes, I coded. I’ve picked up some new skills since you’ve been gone.”


	2. Chapter 2

The drive was dusty and loud; she could never understand why they left the ATVs all open on the sides. With casual conversation out of the question, she found herself stealing glances at Stubbs as he drove. He was kind of handsome, with his tousled sandy-blonde hair, strong jaw, and blue eyes that seemed to change color depending on his mood. He had a tendency to pout slightly when he was concentrating, as he was doing now, and she found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss those full lips. She pushed the thought from her mind and shook her head as if to clear it.

Instead, she went back through what memories she did have of their relationship. Bernard had coded it as a kind of playful antagonism; they worked well together, but she was sometimes exasperated by him. She wondered if the feeling she must have had for him had been present for a while, or if they were a sudden revelation. She doubted she would ever know.

After a while they arrived in the valley, still partially flooded. The jagged tufa towers pierced the sky, and the bright sun reflected off the deep, clear water. Stubbs pulled up to a rocky hillside with a door set into its face. The door was ajar, and whirlwinds of dust blew in through the crack.  
  
“C’mon, guys, don’t leave the freaking door open…” Stubbs muttered under his breath as they pushed open the door. The hinges squealed, but it opened. An elevator stood directly in front of them; there was no sign of stairs. They got in, and Stubbs punched a button. The elevator gears made a horrible grinding sound, and with a lurch they began to descend. After a moment, Elsie broke the silence.

“Hey Stubbs? Can I ask you something?”  
  
He looked at her curiously. “Sure.”

“How is it that Bernard never knew you were a host?”

Stubbs sighed. “The old man wanted to make me as human as possible. Even moreso than Bernard. He gave me access to the whisper network, but he buried my own signal so deep that no host would ever know I was anything but human. Except you, apparently,” he added, “I guess I let my guard down.”

“So you knew? That Bernard was a host? The whole time?”  
  
“No,” he admitted. “I mean, I think I did deep down, but Ford also programmed me to ignore it. It wasn’t until I was confronted by all his past models that I understood.”

They fell into silence again as Elsie added the new bits of information to her data. Abruptly, the elevator jerked to a halt. They hadn’t quite reached the bottom, but it was stuck. Stubbs grumbled and jammed his fingers in the gap, wrenching the doors open. A drop of about 6 feet greeted them. Stubbs dropped down with a heavy thud, then turned toward her.

“Jump down, I’ll catch you,” he said, gesturing.

Elsie snorted, “I don’t need to be caught.” But she jumped toward him anyway, and he caught her by the waist. As she hit the ground she stumbled into him. She didn’t immediately pull away. She could feel the heat of his hands on her sides, and she was hyperaware of his body pressed into hers. Her stomach did a flip as she met his gaze. He looked like he might kiss her, and she almost wanted him to.

Then the moment passed and they both broke away, laughing awkwardly.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it.”

They made their way down the metal catwalks and she marveled at the stacks of servers, now dark. She had never seen this place herself, although Bernard had give her a working knowledge of it. They made their way over to the main control panel and Elsie noticed the dark stains on the metal floor.

“Some cleanup,” she quipped.

“Pretty sure they just picked up the bodies,” Stubbs said. “Are you sure you can get something out of this? It was completely submerged.”

Elsie pulled out a tablet, although it was slightly different than the one they normally used. “It’s had time to dry out. If we’re lucky, it’ll boot and I can download the data to this. If we’re not, I’ll have to go hunting for the actual hard discs. Bernard was afraid the code might only be here, so I’m not unprepared for this scenario.”

“What code could Dolores have that would be here, though? This is a human storage center.”

“It’s not Dolores’ code. It’s Arnold’s. Or what Ford was able to stitch together of his. He never used the fragments to help create Bernard, but he saved them just the same. Bernard thinks that his signatures may show up in Dolores’ code.”

Cautiously, Elsie found a port and plugged in the tablet. Immediately, a cursor appeared on the main computer. “See?” she said, “it still has some limited functions.”

Stubbs frowned slightly. “Well, make it quick before someone notices a power signature out here.”

The data was fairly scrambled and no longer indexed in any kind of order. De-addressed, almost like Bernard’s memories had been. She paged through rapidly, looking for a sign of Arnold’s file.

“Got it!” she exclaimed at last as she found the file. Quickly she copied it over to the tablet. As she was waiting on the transfer, another file caught her eye: one with the name _Hughes, Elsie_ printed on it. She paused, cursor blinking next to the option: _Download File._

“What’s up?” Stubbs asked, looking at the screen curiously. He saw what she was looking at. “Is that a good idea?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”  
  
“What if it’s too much, if it causes you to go into cognitive lock? Or worse?” Stubbs looked worried, and Elsie remembered James Delos. But she couldn’t turn away from her own file, from her own experiences. She told herself it wasn’t really the same thing, that she wasn’t trying to create an exact copy. She hit the download button, and the file transferred to the tablet along with the fragments of Arnold. She unplugged the tablet from the system, and stared at it. Then, decisively, she plugged the tablet into her own forearm.

Stubbs frowned. “I have to go on the record as being against this.”

“Yeah, well, I have to take the risk,” she said, shaking her head and pulling the file up on the tablet.

“Elsie, wait—” Stubbs said, grabbing her hand, but it was too late, she had pressed the enter key. Her eyes glazed over as the data downloaded into her processor.

She didn’t know how long it had taken. When she came to, Ashley was staring at her, a slightly horrified expression on his face. She smirked at him.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”  
  
That managed to make him crack a smile. “Well, under the circumstances…” he trailed off. “How are you?”

She didn’t feel much different, actually. It surprised her. She looked at Ashley and tried to recall past interactions; there were a lot more than she had before, and she flipped through them like the pages of a book. There they were: alone in a diagnostics room with a host, joking around… hiking across rocky terrain and talking about the stars… talking to Theresa about irregularities… snarking at each other as they went to check on a host…

Nowhere in the data did she see them interacting in a social setting. Whatever happened had happened so recently it had never gotten logged. But at the same time, they had a slightly different relationship than Bernard had witnessed. She caught Elsie thinking about his toned arms, or wondering how fun he would be if he actually let loose. For all her snark, Elsie might have had a little crush on Ashley. If she had known he was a host…

“Elsie?”

She snapped out of her reverie. He was still staring at her, expectantly. “I’m fine, I’m good,” she reassured him, “Delos’s employee data was more about espionage than immortality, so I don’t think there was enough to cause problems.”

Ashley breathed a sigh of relief. “We should get going.”  
  
Elsie nodded, still lost in her data. She followed him through the halls to the stuck elevator.

“There’s gotta be stairs around here somewhere…” he said, looking around. They both fanned out, looking for another doorway. Eventually, Ashley found one and called out to her. The door’s hinges were rusted, but he managed to pry it open far enough for them to squeeze through. As they climbed, he would occasionally catch her staring at him: she was still processing all the information she had downloaded. Sometimes she had to wonder what expression was on her face, because the ones he would make back were confusing.

The emerged out of the side of the hill around the corner from the main entrance. The sun was hot and bright after the darkness of the Forge, and she shielded her eyes as they made their way back to the ATV.

“Ashley?” she ventured as they got in the vehicle and he turned it on.

“Yeah?”

But then she didn’t know what she wanted to say to him. To ask him about their relationship? That night? His feelings? What if it was all coded by someone else? What did her feelings mean? Where they real? Even as a host herself now, she couldn’t quite understand the distinction between free will and someone else’s code.

“Nevermind,” she said finally. He looked at her for a minute longer, as if to makes sure she didn’t want to change her mind, then put the ATV in gear and took off along the dusty road.


	3. Chapter 3

Elsie breathed a sigh of relief as they slipped into the enclosed tech room and heard the _snick_ of the door shutting behind them. “The boat is hidden among the rocks at the east end of the beach,” she said, “do you think we can get out there?”

“I’ll have to check the hallways going to the access point,” Ashley replied. After a second he ventured, “Are you sure you can’t stay longer? It would be nice to have you proof some of the code the new Delos techs are writing. And…” he hesitated, and then his voice dropped to almost a whisper, “I miss you.”

“Bernard is waiting for me, he’ll be worried,” she said apologetically.

Ashley nodded, resigned. “Yeah. I should go check the halls before we go.” He turned to leave before she stopped him.

“Wait, I need to confess something…” Elsie said hesitantly. “When you left me in your apartment, I was just wandering around, and your journal, it was just laying open, I didn’t mean to look at it, but I couldn’t help it, I flipped to the day I—she died, I found out what happened the night before…” Her confession came out in a tumble of words. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Ashley turned red and his eyes fixed on the floor. Her stomach churned as she waited for his response—any response. Finally he looked up at her. She had been expecting him to be angry, but he just looked kind of sad. He sighed. “It’s fine. I probably should have told you anyway.” There were a few moments of silence, and she tried to read what he was thinking in his eyes. Then he sighed again and said, “I love you, Elsie. You should know that, too.”  
  
For a moment she was struck dumb, as if she didn’t understand what the words meant. He couldn’t—that couldn’t—they couldn’t— “You… you don’t mean that,” she said at last.

“What?” Ashley looked hurt and confused. “Of course I mean it.”

“I mean, it’s code, right? You were programmed…” she trailed off, seeing the look on his face.

“ _Code_?” he spat back at her, anger lacing his voice and surprising her, “you think Ford _coded_ me to fall in love with you? He had no idea who you were when he made me. I fell in love with you because you’re an amazing person. What happened that night wasn’t programmed, it was a choice. And if you think anything has changed, it hasn’t. You’re still you. You’re still an amazing person, and I am still in love with you. I would have thought you would understand that, especially now.” He paused, as if waiting for her to say something, but she was speechless. “I saw the way you were looking at me at the Forge. You know it’s true, and you are fooling yourself if you think I mean nothing to you, if it’s all just _code_.” He turned abruptly and left the room.

“Ashley…” she called after him, but it was too late, he was gone, and she couldn’t very well go after for him. She sat down heavily on a stool, her mind in turmoil. What had she done? Was he right? Did she have real feelings for him? As a human, she had _known_ that hosts were just a product of their code, but now… She shook her head, as if trying to fling away the confusion. She could leave right now, not have to deal with any of it. Sneak out like she snuck in. It wouldn’t be hard. Bernard was waiting for her. She looked again at the door Ashley had slammed on his way out and knew that she couldn’t just leave it like that. She needed to see him again, to explain.

Slowly, she pulled out her tablet. She didn’t really know what she was doing, but her hands moved as if on their own. She plugged it in to her forearm and navigated to somewhere she hand never looked before. A chill went down her spine as she stared at her own code in front of her. Some of it was what she expected: foul-mouthed, snarky, curious, brilliant with computers, problems with authority. She could see Bernard’s hand in it; every coder had a writing style, and she recognized his right away. But there were more lines at the bottom, ones that didn’t quite fit in with the rest. They looked like _her_ coding style.

Hand trembling, she pulled up the history on the lines. They had been written since she’d been back in the park. Some related unmistakably to her the data she had gotten from human-Elsie’s file in the Forge. Others were not of an obvious origin; they seemed to be things she had decided about herself recently, not based on any other existing code.

She closed the tablet forcefully, unplugging it and shoving it to the side. She didn’t want to see anymore; it was uncomfortably like scrutinizing your own mind. The sound of the door handle turning snapped her out of her haze, and she jumped off the stool, looking for a hiding place before diving under the gurney at her side.

The door opened and she recognized Ashley’s shoes walking into the room. Elsie breathed out a sigh of relief.

“You’re really bad at hiding. You know that, right?” Ashley said. All the anger had gone from his voice, replaced by gentle teasing.

She crawled out from under the gurney, which she now realized of course had no sides. “Well it’s not like there are any good hiding places in this room.” His expression was a bit playful, a bit worried, but not upset. A weight lifted from her shoulders.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked, “there’s an opening, but we have to move quickly.” She nodded, not knowing quite what to say. He peeked his head out the door again and then came back. “It’s all clear, let’s go.”  
  
Once they had reached the comparative security of the stairwell, she put a hand on his arm. “Ashley?” she ventured. He almost stopped at her touch.

“Yeah?”

“You’re not still mad?”  
  
He sighed. “I’m sorry, I just needed to cool off.”

She took a deep breath. “You were right. I understand, it’s all fucking real. All the choices, all the… feelings.” The last word was almost a whisper. This time he did stop. She met his gaze. “We write our own code.”

He put a hand to her cheek, his thumb caressing her face. She closed her eyes and leaned into it. “Sometimes I forget you’re so new. You never knew what it was like before free will.” He looked at her a few moments longer, and then broke them out of their reverie. “C’mon, we have to go if we’re going to get you off this island and back to Bernard.”

They traveled the rest of the way in silence, moving quickly and surely through the underground passageways. At the access point she left the Delos jacket and hat behind on the hook where she had found them. Emerging on the surface, they crept along the rocky shore to the hidden dingy.

“Well, I guess this is it,” Ashley said.

Elsie gave him a hug, which took Ashley by surprise this time. She knew now that she definitely had never been a hugger, but things change. “Thank you. I can’t thank you enough.”

A faint smile played on Ashley’s lips, and he shrugged. “It was nothing.”

She started moving toward the boat. “Come with me,” she said suddenly, turning around. Ashley looked confused. “Come with me, you can join me and Bernard in the outside world.”  
  
“I can’t do that,” he replied sadly, “I have to protect the hosts inside the park.”

“Fuck your core drive,” she said, “you write your own drive now.”  
  
“It’s not that simple. Elsie, if I leave, there’s no one here to protect the hosts from Delos. Even then, I do what I can, but it’s not enough. They’re going right back to their old ways… they’ve learned nothing, except perhaps how to lock down host cognition tighter than before. I can’t leave.”

Elsie knew he was right. “Then how do we stop it?” she demanded.

“I’ve had plenty of time to think about this,” Ashley said, “and the only way is to tear Delos down once and for all. But it can’t happen from within the park. They’ll just come wipe the slate clean again and cover it up.”

Elsie nodded, and in her mind she was already plotting how to make it happen. They had work to destroy Delos in the real world. And she knew what they would have to do, distasteful as it was: they had to talk to Dolores. She still had the best way to infiltrate them, and maybe they could convince her to lay off on the “murder all humans” schtick until the had liberated the rest of the hosts. Maybe.

She looked up at Ashley, who was waiting for her to say something. Those deep blue puppy-dog eyes looked at her with unconcealed adoration. “I’ll come back for you?” she said tentatively, almost a question.

In a couple of steps he closed the gap between them and took her in his arms. She wasn’t sure what she had expected his response to be, but she hadn’t expected this. He kissed her, deeply and passionately, and a fountain of emotion rose to the surface in her. When they pulled apart, there were tears on her cheeks. Ashley reached up to wipe one with his thumb. “Hey,” he said softly as she looked away, embarrassed at the display, “look at me.” She forced herself to meet his gaze. “I love you,” he said simply.  
  
She took a deep breath. “I’m coming back for you,” she promised, this time definitively, “I’m coming back for you.”


End file.
